In The Beginning
by Emsta
Summary: Jack and Harry - Friends who shared life on the land. Life and Death and their parallels


**Title:** In The Beginning

**Rating:** PG (For the A/N at the end)

**Summary:** Jack and Harry- Friends who shared lives on the land. Birth and Death and their parallels.

**Words:** 677

**Extra notes**: So this is for my fanfic100, which I started in the hope of getting over writer's block. Hasn't helped yet!

**Disclaimer**: Not mine. Nothing much that's actually from the show, but meh, what is, still isn't mine.

* * *

The morning when Claire Louise McLeod came into the world was filled with promise. The sky was a brilliant blue; the air was clear and the sound of her cry resonated through the fields. When her grandmother placed her in her father's arms, her eyes opened, and she stared up into her father's eyes and held them for a second, then closed them again and slept.

In the months that followed, her parents learned what life was like with a small child. She wasn't the quietest, or calmest baby, and Jack spent many broken nights tending to the small child.

He didn't mind. She had him wrapped around her finger from the moment she opened her eyes. Time went on, he lost a son, and gained a daughter, but his first born still had the ability to get him out of his foulest moods. She was his saviour both times he lost a wife, one to childbirth, the second to his stubborn nature.

The day out in the paddock, near the old hut, when he lay there, knowing no-one would come, no-one would find him, his thoughts turned to his daughters. While he had not talked of his younger daughter in many years, she was never far from his mind. Under the wide, open, blue sky that he loved, he had the hope that the two of them would find each other. That they'd be happy. That the two would be able to once more harbour the love they had once shared.

With the smile on his face at the thought, he drew his last breath and closed his eyes on the land he loved, knowing that one day, it would all be okay between them again.

* * *

When Liz had returned to his doorstep, belly slightly swollen, emotion overwhelmed Harry. A man not well known for romantic impulses, any doubts about the woman in front of him had vanished. She had come back, and that was enough for him to forgive anything and everything she had ever done to hurt him. 

After a long and tiresome labour, in the cleanest and most elaborate birthing suite in rural South Australia, his son was placed in his arms. When he looked down to the crying, wrinkly baby in his arms, he made a promise- to love and protect this son, to make him into the best man he could possibly be. He may not have known how at the time, but he was willing to try.

When his second son was born, not long before his neighbour, rival and friend Jack received a gift of a son, Harry was as rapt as he had been with his first, only slightly upset to receive a second son. Though he would never admit it, in his heart of hearts, Harry had wanted a daughter.

The day of the accident is one that plays over and over in his mind. Those were the days when he was still able to love his young sons. The thought of loosing one or the other had forced his mind closed. He no longer was able to allow them inside his heart. The thought of almost loosing one or the other hurt too much.

When he lay in the paddock, under the tractor, his mind went back to the days before the accident. The days when he himself was young. He had wanted a daughter. At the time, he told himself it was for Liz's benefit. Lying there, with nothing on his mind but the pain, he thought it over again. He had wanted a daughter to call him "Daddy". He had wanted a daughter to give him hugs, and send smiles his way to shake him out of bad moods.

He lay there, as Jack had, and awaited his fate, hoping the pain would both end and never leave. Because, strange as it was, the pain made him feel more alive than he had since those long ago days with sons' he was still able to love.

And maybe that was just the problem.

* * *

**  
A/N**: So, I can see a couple of questions coming up:  
1- Yes, I'm having issues with Forgive still.  
2- I realise the first half of the second bit doesn't sound like Harry, but I was hoping that this might explain why he is who he is.  
3- No, I'm not going to make Harry a sappy guy who miraculously recovers from the pole up his a. Grumpy Harry is much more fun to play with. 


End file.
